He said the report showed that the government had placed excessive spending mostly under NFPCs to maintain a semblance of a moderate’ budget deficit.

The estimated deficit for public corporations was RM50.5 billion, not including the multibillion debts of 1Malaysia Development Bhd, which is fully owned by the Finance Ministry.

Pua said NFPC spending was not included in the budget so that the budget would show ‘prudent’ deficits.

The NFPC deficit was RM10.6 billion in 2013, RM52.3 billion in 2014 and RM56.9 billion in 2015, according to the Economic Report.

The Federal Government budget deficits were RM37.2 billion (2015) and estimated at RM38.7 billion (2016) and RM40.3 billion (2017).

The report states that debt servicing charges have increased from RM20.3 billion in 2013 to a projected RM28.9 billion in 2017. “The increase will only accelerate and snowball given NFPC financial obligations,” said Pua. “These obligations arise from massive deficits in the years to come.”

The NFPCs are involved in multiple multi-billion ringgit projects, such as the LRT Extension Project, the MRT Projects and the proposed High-Speed Rail and the RM55 billion East Coast Railway Link.